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In January Dr. Jim Folts, head of Research Services at the New York State Archives at the Cultural Education Center in Albany, joined me on the Forget-Me-Not Hour to talk about the many facets of the state archives. I have known Jim for a number of years in the course of my own and client research at the state archives. His knowledge of the archives is unsurpassed! The archives holds records from all state agencies from the executive, legislative and judicial branches of New York state government back to colonial New Netherlands … Read More

Last week Maureen Taylor, the Photo Detective, and Pam Pacelli Cooper of Verissima Productions joined me on The Forget-Me-Not Hour to talk about Maureen’s book The Last Muster being made into a documentary film. Maureen has collected about 150 photographic images of men and women who were alive during the American Revolution (1775-1783) and who had photos taken after the advent of photography in 1839. Maureen and Pam are collaborating to bring the images of these people and their stories to life in the 21st century through the medium of film. They talked … Read More

A few weeks ago, Mark Lowe, professional genealogist and well-known genealogy speaker, joined me on The Forget-Me-Not Hour to talk about whiskey and Southern migration in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Mark explained how whiskey production was a major draw and livelihood for many settlers in Kentucky and Tennessee after the Wilderness Road was blazed by Daniel Boone in 1775. Small home-run distilleries sprang up as a result of fresh, sweet (non-mineral) water, good soil for growing whiskey-producing crops, and eventually easy transport on the rivers with the advent of the … Read More

Geoff Miller, chair of the Reher Center for Immigrant Culture and History, and Nelsie Aybar-Grau joined me on The Forget-Me-Not Hour a few weeks ago. They talked about the Reher Center located at the Rondout in Kingston, N.Y. and the oral history project that the center has undertaken. The Reher Center began as a project of the Jewish Federation of Ulster County to document the lives of the Jewish immigrants who landed at Rondout, N.Y. during the heyday of the Delaware and Hudson Canal. The project soon encompassed all immigrant groups who … Read More

A few weeks ago Suzanne Wasserman, director of the Gotham Center for New York City History, joined me on The Forget-Me-Not Hour to discuss how New York City fared during the Great Depression of the 1930s. I had heard Suzanne speak on the topic at the New York Public Library on 42nd Street in February in an all-day conference on the then soon-to-be released 1940 U.S. census. The impact of the Great Depression on NYC was astonishing, as you will hear. Breadlines became the norm. Hoovervilles (tent cities) sprang up throughout the city. … Read More

A few weeks ago Geneablogger’s Thomas MacEntee joined me on the Forget-Me-Not Hour to talk about hardware for genealogists. It was a most informative show, and I was jotting down notes as Thomas explained what is available and what are the pros and cons of each type of device. Thomas explained the ways that we can capture data through cameras, smartphones, scanners (a few different types) and microfilm readers at the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City that digitize images to store on a memory stick or even … Read More

Harold Henderson who writes the Midwestern Microhistory blog http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com/ joined me on the Forget-Me-Not Hour two weeks ago to talk about the ins and outs of writing for genealogical publications. The show was extremely informative and inspiring for this writer. Harold covered writing for local genealogy society newsletters, state publications and what he called the Big Five, the national scholarly publications: The American Genealogist, The Genealogist–published by the American Society of Genealogists, NGSQ–National Genealogical Society Quarterly, the New England Historic Genealogical Society Register and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society Record. … Read More

Two weeks ago on the Forget-Me-Not Hour, Bridget Bray, organizer of The Genealogy Event in New York City, joined me on the show. The Genealogy Event is the only genealogy event happening in New York City this year–on 26 & 27 October at the Metropolitan Pavilion. See www.TheGenealogyEvent.com for more information. Because of her own interest in genealogy, Bridget organized a Meet-up group in New York City for people with Irish and English ancestry, and she attended the Who Do You Think You Are? genealogy conference in London a few … Read More

Last week Kenyatta Berry, the president of the Association of Professional Genealogists, joined me on The Forget-Me-Not Hour show. Kenyatta packed the interview with so much information about the APG! She discussed how the organization has evolved since its inception in the 1970s to its current focus on the business of professional genealogy and how the process of forming the APG mission is done. To that end the APG has webinars for professional development, the annual Professional Management Conference (PMC) in Salt Lake City (next year in March), the APG … Read More

Last week on the Forget-Me-Not Hour, Dick Eastman joined me and talked about computers and genealogy. Dick, the author of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter, shared his experience as a computer techie forging the way in the infancy of personal computers, when computer data was stored on punch cards. That concept was hard for me to comprehend–genealogy data on a punch card. I vaguely remember those cards when my brother was studying computer science in college and brought some home for his little sister to play with. Dick talked about how … Read More